The importance of this drawing, a portrait of one of the Tudor Kings' longest-serving ministers, lies both in the fact that it is an extremely rare survival of Francesco Bartolozzi's working practice and a record of the appearance of an ad vivum drawing by Hans Holbein in the 1790s that was to deteriorate in condition in the following century. The original has been described as ‘unequalled for its penetrating characterisation’ and the perception of the original has been faithfully retained by Bartolozzi in this copy.

1 K.T. Parker The Drawings of Hans Holbein in the Collection of His Majesty The King at Windsor Castle (Oxford and London 1945). Cat. 12